i sold my 87 300sdl to my friend, the trans had been acting up but the kickdown switch had a bunch of junk clogged up in it and i thought that was the issue after doing a lot of searches and reading

the trans will be perfect for while and then wont shift, runs up to 4000rpms, etc

i had it at the indie shop for 8 days and they could never get it to mess up at all
, then i cleaned the swicth area, etc hoping that was it

anyone have a good recommendation for a shop in tucson or phoenix that has a lot of experience with 300sdls, the vaccum stuff, etc

this indie shop i was using is pricey and since it never acted up they did not even test anything
i think they tend to focus on newer cars etc also

at this point i would like someone else to look at it

ended up taking the 87 300sdl to craigs auto here in tucson, they had to drive it a while before it acted up but thought it was the valve body screens were clogged, etc

so they changed fluid and filter- which it was needing anyway- and cleaned the valve body screens that were very clogged

we get the car back tomorrow so hoping this was all it was

i will write an update after we drive it for a week or so

after reading a lot of trans threads these are the things that seemed to come up as issues for my trans at least

vacuum leak
bowden cable
valve body screens dirty
vacuum modulator
governor

hope this helps someone else

will report back after we drive it a good bit, this was a hard thing to get diagnosed becuase it would drive fine for 4-5 days and then quit shifting, then fine 3 more days, etc